The invention relates to a radial turbo-blower comprising a rotatably supported rotor and a motor driving the rotor.
Conventionally, radial turbo-blowers of both the single-stage and the two-stage type in vacuum technology are constructed such that rotor, motor and bearing are arranged one behind the other, the rotor being adapted to be located between the bearings or to be cantilevered. The bearings are lubricated by oil delivered to the bearings by an oil delivery means. Such radial turbo-blowers have a great axial structural length and a great number of components. They require complicated balancing processes. Further, there is the danger of contaminating the rotor region with the oil provided to lubricate the bearings. The motor is located in the vacuum, which requires a complicated insulation of the windings with the result of bad heat transmissions and a sealed line leadthrough for the power lines.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a radial turbo-blower having a compact structure and being able to be produced from few components at low costs.
This object is solved, according to the invention, with the features indicated in claim 1. Accordingly, the motor is a permanently excited disk armature motor comprising permanent magnets with axial magnetic field orientation which are mounted to the rotor, and stationary stator windings. Thus, the motor is partially integrated in the rotor and arranged in immediate proximity to the rotor. Thereby, the structural length of the blower is reduced. Further, by a bearing arrangement housed in a cavity of the rotor, the rotor is supported on a stationary bearing pin projecting into the cavity. Thus, the rotor is exclusively supported in the interior of the rotor, a shaft rotating therewith not being required. The rotor hub can rather be directly supported on the bearing arrangement seated on the bearing pin. By this kind of supporting, vibrations of the rotor are also avoided. This results in low rotor losses and thereby, the efficiency is increased. The stationary bearing pin facilitates the production. For the motor, a simple water cooling can be installed.
Preferably, the bearing arrangement is lubricated with grease, at least one grease chamber being provided in the cavity of the rotor. As an alternative, it is possible to use magnetic bearings which are maintenance-free as well. A combination of magnetic bearing and grease-lubricated bearing is conceivable as well.
Preferably, the cavity of the rotor is open to the rear and at the rear end of the cavity, a sealing gap is formed between the rotor and the bearing pin. This sealing gap prevents that lubrication grease and bearing components are sucked from the cavity into the pump chamber. It is also possible to use a sealing there, but in this case, parts rubbed off the sealing may enter the pump chamber.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a narrow heat transmission gap having a width of not more than 0.5 mm for carrying heat away from the rotor to the bearing pin is formed between the wall defining the cavity and a spacer ring seated on the bearing pin in a well heat-conducting manner. Due to the formation of a narrow heat transmission gap, heat is carried away from the rotor to the cooled bearing pin.
A pressure-tight magnetically permeable partition wall can be arranged between the rotor and the stator windings. This partition wall may consist of a membrane, a fiber composite or a casting compound. It effects a vacuum sealing between the pump chamber and the motor chamber so that the stator contained in the motor chamber is positioned on the atmospheric side and not in a vacuum chamber. This permits a simpler and cheaper winding insulation of the stator windings. Moreover, no pressure-tight current leadthrough is required on the stator housing. It is rather possible to use a simple terminal box.
With the radial turbo-blower according to the invention, it is also possible to substantially simplify the cooling by housing a cooling device in the stator housing. This cooling device cools both the stator and the bearing pin and effects that heat transmitted from the rotor to the bearing pin is carried away.
When the rotational position of the rotor is to be detected, a corresponding transmitter on an inductive, capacitive or optical basis can be provided, said transmitter being arranged in the stator.
Another advantage of the construction of the motor as a disk armature motor according to the invention is that the stator coils attract the rotor so that it is not necessary to mechanically apply a biasing axial force on the rotor.
The radial turbo-blower is particularly suitable for high-speed blowers, e.g., for the use in high-flow speed CO2 lasers.
Still further advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.